Russia scores 16&U Summer Cups double

Russia has become the first nation ever to win all of Tennis Europe’s 16 & Under team competitions in the same year, having scooped both the boys’ and girls’ 16 & Under European Summer Cups titles.

The top seeded Russians were forced to come from behind to secure victory at the boys’ finals in Le Touquet, France. Despite having lost their two previous matches on the Tennis Europe Junior Tour, Tomas Machac put their Czech rivals ahead with a three set win over Alen Avidzba in the first rubber.

The top seeds dominated the two remaining matches though, with Timofey Skatov conceding just two games to Ondrej Styler to level the tie. Avidzba then returned to the court alongside Alexey Zakharov to beat Styler and Evzen Holis 6-3 6-0 to seal the Borotra Cup title for a third time.

The team lost just one match in the entire competition, a dead doubles match in their opening tie against France before going on to beat Slovenia, Romania, Austria, Switzerland and Czech Republic.

The Russian girls’ team was even more dominant at their finals in Budapest, keeping up an incredible streak that saw the team go through the entire competition without losing a single match. Having seen off Croatia and Italy 3/0 in the qualifying rounds before receiving a walkover against Great Britain in the final qualifying match, the team picked up where they left off by blasting past Romania in the quarter finals for the loss of just eleven games in three matches.

The semi-final against Czech Republic proved to be more hotly contested, with Russian #1 Anastasia Potapova stretched to three sets by Karolina Berankova before Olesya Pervushina (singles and doubles) and Varvara Gracheva (doubles) wrapped up another 3/0 win.

The final match against Poland saw Potapova ease to a 6-1 6-4 win over Maja Chwalinksa before Pervushina beat recent European Junior Championship silver medallist Iga Swiatek 6-2 6-4 to secure Russia’s fifth win in this age category since 2009, and ninth overall.

Added to their wins at the Tennis Europe Winter Cups by HEAD in February, the victories mean that Russia becomes the first nation ever to win all four 16 & Under European team trophies in thesame season.

The 16 & Under Summer Cups also serve as the regional qualifying for the Junior Davis and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas competitions, the finals of which will be held in Budapest from 27 September – 2 October. The top five teams in each category will join the host nation in qualifying from Europe.